November 10, 2014 - Bull's-Eye

Bull’s-Eye Less than four months after Apollo 11’s historic Moon landing, NASA launched a second crew of lunar explorers on a mission highlighted by precision flying. Apollo 12 lifted off forty-five years ago this week, and after a four-day journey Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon remained in lunar orbit while Commander Pete Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan Bean descended in the lunar module Intrepid. After a journey of 400,000 km (250,000 mi), Intrepid landed within walking distance of its target, the unmanned Surveyor III spacecraft, which landed on the Moon more than two years earlier. In this image, Conrad stands next to Surveyor while Intrepid can be seen in the distance. The two astronauts removed Surveyor’s television camera and other equipment for later analysis back on Earth.